My Lion King Forum

I don't know if this was asked before or not, but recently I randomly thought of this and I am wondering what you guys think:

Would the movie have been better if it didn't try to simply force Timon and Pumbaa into every scene from the first movie?

I know that this statement isn't exactly true, but for the most part, 1.5 does indeed do just that. It will take a scene from the first movie, like the "IJCWTBK" sequence, or "Be Prepared", and forcefully insert Timon and Pumbaa in there.

Wouldn't the movie have been better if it used more original scenes or stick with "TLK 1 from the perspective of T&P"?

The short answer: such a change would have the potential to make it better, but that wouldn't necessarily make it better.

Personally, I would like to see more of the parenting scenes, instead of all the parodies of all the scenes in the original film.

[quote="DGFone"]Would the movie have been better if it didn't try to simply force Timon and Pumbaa into every scene from the first movie?

I know that this statement isn't exactly true, but for the most part, 1.5 does indeed do just that. It will take a scene from the first movie, like the "IJCWTBK" sequence, or "Be Prepared", and forcefully insert Timon and Pumbaa in there.[/quote]
As someone who has watched all of TLK 1 1/2 at least 10 times since the past year already, all I'm going to say on this for now is, the bold statement above is definitely not true about this film.

[quote="DGFone"]
I know that this statement isn't exactly true, but for the most part, 1.5 does indeed do just that. It will take a scene from the first movie, like the "IJCWTBK" sequence, or "Be Prepared", and forcefully insert Timon and Pumbaa in there.
[/quote]


I know it's not true, but what's more important is not whether it's true or not as much as how it "feels". Because apart from the "Lion Sleeps Tonight" scene, to me at least, the movie feels like T&P in TLK 1.

Would the movie have been better if it didn't try to simply force Timon and Pumbaa into every scene from the first movie? My answer to that is not exactly. True, delete all the parodies of the scenes in the original film would make it better, but then, it would undo what the movie was trying to be: an absurdist comedy in the vein of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and do what that play did to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Now, let's say the film did have more original scenes, but that it wouldn't make it better because there's the slightest chance that those scenes can contain the same off-color humor, surreal humor, and gags more suited for children than adult audiences as seen in the parody scenes in the film we know today.

One example of this was the snail-slurping contest. That scene was not a parody of a scene in The Lion King yet one can be thrown off by the scene's use of gross-out humor. Was the scene original? Yes. Did it make the movie better? That depends on the person's cinematic tastes. What would have 1½ for me is if the movie balanced out the drama and the comedy more, and not one genre in the film overtake the other. The first film did this, and the second did to an extent.

[quote="TheLionPrince"]
One example of this was the snail-slurping contest. That scene was not a parody of a scene in The Lion King yet one can be thrown off by the scene's use of gross-out humor. Was the scene original? Yes. Did it make the movie better? That depends on the person's cinematic tastes. What would have 1½ for me is if the movie balanced out the drama and the comedy more, and not one genre in the film overtake the other. The first film did this, and the second did to an extent.[/quote]

I think this is why I can actually stand the snail slurping contest scene: It doesn't ruin a great scene from The Lion King, as much as parody what is already considered great parody material. What I am saying is that if they parodied the intro, with Rafiki holding Simba in the air... if they parodied that scene like they did in the bloopers, I think I would have been more forgiving because that scene is already considered quite parody-worthy.

But for other TLK 1 scenes, 1.5 just mostly felt like it was ruining a masterpiece. Guess I didn't get past the shock value.

So here is a new question similar to the first: Would the movie have been better if it did more overall parodies than try to parody just The Lion King, with other parodies slipped in here and there.

I believe it would've made sense to not have Timon and Pumbaa shoved in every single scene that was in the original. For example, how could they be in the "Be Prepared" sequence? They have never been around the Elephant Graveyard at any point of the original, so how does that work? They didn't even know that the moment with Scar and the hyenas was going on, which was before they met Simba outside of the Pridelands. That also says the same for scenes like "IJCWTBK" and "Circle of Life", even though they didn't have to know his name before that either. Personally, I would've like to have seen a longer extension of Simba and Nala's friendship because they have been friends for a long time, even before Mufasa's death occurred, and also have more interactions between Simba and Sarabi or Mufasa and Sarabi. If they showed the first time Simba and Nala meeting each other as cubs, that would have been such a cute scene.

[quote="Regulus"]The short answer: such a change would have the potential to make it better, but that wouldn't necessarily make it better.

Personally, I would like to see more of the parenting scenes, instead of all the parodies of all the scenes in the original film.[/quote]

I think I agree with this for the most part. It does add some comic relief which is really what T&P's role was even in the first movie. So... It fits.
As a film, yes it probably would've been better but in terms of what Disney were trying to achieve with TLK 3, it wouldn't have been.

And it's a bit weird that they were at the ceremony and then we were supposed to believe in TLK they had no idea who Simba was when they found him. I mean, really? XD

"Personally, I would like to see more of the parenting scenes, instead of all the parodies of all the scenes in the original film."

No, that was terrible, too.

The hyenas needed to be in it more. Because they didn't appear in movie 2, there was no excuse for them not appearing more.

Disney better have a good LK 4 that, if not having them as the main focus, gets them in A LOT.

I like the movie the way it is. I first saw it in elementary school and it didn't bother me they did that and for some reason it still doesn't. I love all the lion kings and think they are all perfect. I loved the Timon and Pumbaa cartoon when I was younger, so that's probably why.